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I havn't played campaign yet, but I played 2 hours of multiplayer last night. Graphics and sound were amazing and the attention to detail was apparent. I think they did a really good job of borrowing Call of Duty features like the kill cam and loadouts. There's a lot of customization, especially for a Halo game. The aim and firing reminded me more of halo 2 and 3 (which is a good thing). There were a lot of nice little features, like in CTF if the flag was dropped, you could see how much time there was until it goes back to base. Also, your screen had indicators as to where weapons were on the map. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the maps seem kind of generic. Then again, I havn't played everyone of them yet, and I havn't played any of the downloadable maps.

Other things I noticed:

-rockets are much weaker
-the human shotgun is beastly and actually has some 1 shot kill range to it.
-ordinance drops are a nice touch.
-vehicles were much weaker, especially banshees.
-spawn points varied much more than I've seen in any Halo.
-similar to COD, you sometimes enter in games already in progress.
-they award you for a lot more than just kills. If you played Reach, you know that it was very hard to get an assist. But in Halo 4, it reverts back to 3 in that regard. Also, you get points for things like distracting, vehicle kills, & vehicle assists.

I havn't played enough to award it best Halo multiplayer yet, but I will say its first impression was on par with my first impression of Halo 2.

Re: **Official** Halo 4 thread

Originally Posted by JackFinfan

I havn't played campaign yet, but I played 2 hours of multiplayer last night. Graphics and sound were amazing and the attention to detail was apparent. I think they did a really good job of borrowing Call of Duty features like the kill cam and loadouts. There's a lot of customization, especially for a Halo game. The aim and firing reminded me more of halo 2 and 3 (which is a good thing). There were a lot of nice little features, like in CTF if the flag was dropped, you could see how much time there was until it goes back to base. Also, your screen had indicators as to where weapons were on the map. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the maps seem kind of generic. Then again, I havn't played everyone of them yet, and I havn't played any of the downloadable maps.

Other things I noticed:

-rockets are much weaker
-the human shotgun is beastly and actually has some 1 shot kill range to it.
-ordinance drops are a nice touch.
-vehicles were much weaker, especially banshees.
-spawn points varied much more than I've seen in any Halo.
-similar to COD, you sometimes enter in games already in progress.
-they award you for a lot more than just kills. If you played Reach, you know that it was very hard to get an assist. But in Halo 4, it reverts back to 3 in that regard. Also, you get points for things like distracting, vehicle kills, & vehicle assists.

I havn't played enough to award it best Halo multiplayer yet, but I will say its first impression was on par with my first impression of Halo 2.

The vehicles and rockets (probably the Fuel Rod Gun as well) are weaker because there is no armor lock. The Reach weapons were over powered because they had to compensate for that stupid power lock.

Also I personally think Halo out "CoD-ed" Call of Duty. I think Black Ops is going to be hard pressed to top Halo 4.

Originally Posted by ChambersWI

the needler is actually REALLY good now.

Some of my friends don't like the campaign, but it's fairly obvious that they are building to the next game. I enjoyed the campaign, but it seemed rather short to me.

The vehicles and rockets (probably the Fuel Rod Gun as well) are weaker because there is no armor lock. The Reach weapons were over powered because they had to compensate for that stupid power lock.

Also I personally think Halo out "CoD-ed" Call of Duty. I think Black Ops is going to be hard pressed to top Halo 4.

That needler is a godsend against the new enemies.

Forgive my spelling. This was sent from my phone.

Not sure about that, The rocket has been powerful since Halo 1. I feel like I kill people much quicker with this DMR. There's another gun that looks like the fuel rod gun, and it's really powerful. Also, like I said, the shotgun packs more of a punch in 4 than Reach. So, it seems like for the most part, guns are more powerful in 4 than in Reach.

I'm really happy about the Banshees being weaker. In Reach, people could take so much flak and still survive. I remember seeing kill totals that were insane from people in banshees. Now all it takes are a couple people to concentrate fire on it, and it'll go down.

So, i picked up Halo 4 on Tuesday and continued my abusive relationship with the series. Everytime i beat a Halo game i scream at it "No, im done, ill never buy another one again, its over!", then a year later a new one comes out and says "hey baby, ive changed, gimme another try" and i am all to willing to say "okay, it'll work this time". Why do i do this? Because i have no self respect.

Anyways, i beat it Wednesday but have wanted to sit back and give it a few days before i "vocalized" my thoughts on it. Going to go through the good and bad. Keep in mind, i havent touched multiplayer yet and while i will be hitting Spartan Ops im not sure ill play the competative multiplayer. I tried to keep the spoilers to an absolute minimum. Nothing in my posts should surprise anyone who has seen a trailer or viewed this thread.

The Bad-

1) Lack of content: The length of the game was easily the biggest disappointment for me. Undoubtably the shortest game in the series, i had very little difficulty beating almost every mission in less than an hour. Combine that with what, 8 missions? It didnt take long to blow past it. Even another mission or two would have helped immensely and would have fleshed out the story better.
As well, the removal of Firefight mode is a curious decision. Again, i havent played Spartan Ops but thus far ive heard it wasnt to thrilling. Perhaps in time the Spartan Ops will totally replace Firefight, but at this moment im a bit puzzled at why they would do this.
And what was with the theater option no longer working for the campaign? Bad 343, bad!

2) Equipment availability/usefulness: I broke this up into two parts. In the original Halo series, especially in the first one, different guns served different purposes. Human weapons were generally better at killing the Flood, while Covenant weapons were generally better at killing Covenant. Combine that with long and short range weapons as well as potential ammo availability, it added a some tactical element to the games. In Halo 4, the new weapons dont provide any sort of tactical element that i could see. The new weapons dont fill any niches and often are identical as other factions weapons in their use. I understand there are game balancing issues(especially with multiplayer), but it was still a bit of a let down.
Second, the availability of weapons and equipment was a bit frustrating. There were some weapons you dont have access to until halfway through the second to the last level. By that point, the game was basically over. Its almost like they merely wanted to introduce those weapons so you can screw with it for a few minutes to be prepared for their function in multiplayer. This is not an uncommon occurance in games, but it seemed like Halo purposedly waited until the very end to introduce things.

3) Exploration: Some of the other games rewarded you for exploring. They were usually little clues to get a better idea of the Halo universe. In this game, 343 wanted to reward players for exploring. They gave weapons out if you found certain spots but also gave out key plot points that were only available if you tracked down them down. I wouldnt have had a problem with this if the game didnt punish you for taking to long. The entire game was one fight after another, far more so than in previous games. As well, you often have a running clock scenario to deal with. Both of those things arent a problem either. The problem is combining the two vastly different game styles.

4) Second disk: Being forced to install the second disk was seriously a dick move by 343. Just a crappy thing to do. Having an old school refurbished hard drive means i dont have alot of room anyways, but having to delete various things to fit it on was frustrating. I almost went into a nerdrage meltdown when i was forced to delete some Mass Effect 3 content.

5) "3": You have to do every objective almost always 3 times. Not really a complaint, but alittle variety would have been nice.

6) "Infinity": Infinity is a microcosm of my frustration with the game. They spent multiple trailers shoving this ship in our face...and then you dont spend much time with it. Its clear they wanted to make this an iconic vessel(ala the Normandy of Mass Effect) but i found myself not caring in the least about it. I dont want to expand on that microcosm anymore than that, for fear of giving things away, but suffice to say i had that attitude towards other parts of the game.

The Good-

1) Story: The story is a typical Halo story. In my opinion, there really hasnt been a great in game story since the original, which had multiple twists and deceptions. This one is neat and sets up the trilogy, but it has its share of cliches. "Destiny" is brought up on more than once and alien religions play a part.
While the story the overarching story is largely neutral, whoever wrote the personal story concerning Master Chief and Cortana deserves all the beers. In a surprise twist, this is a very epic tale and is emotionally stirring. In the past people have tried to insist to me that Halo is a work of art. I laughed at them. The stories have largely been an excuse to slaughter hordes of enemies. But by god did 343 change that. Only the Mass Effect series has brought up this type of emotion in a video game. While the critics have focused on the Cortana element(which was exceptionally done), 343 also directs their attention to Chief. You start to question whether you are playing a hero or a unfeeling creature. This was, without a doubt, the best part of the game.

2) Audio/Visual: As previously mentioned, best graphics on xbox. Stunning. Audio is also exceptional. At different times i could tell i was about to be ambushed because i could hear the soft steps of an emeny just outside my radar range.
But those two aspects pale in comparison to the face animations and voice acting. You can tell characters are making grueling decisions while suffering conflicting emotions by what you see on the screen. For a game who's main character is all but faceless, this was a nice touch. The voice acting was phenomenal. Jen Taylor killed it as Cortana. I cant give enough praise to her or the voice actor for Master Chief. Well played.

3) New enemies: Unlike the new weapons, the new enemies were extremely well done. I had to change tactics throughout the game. Fighting more then one Knight at a time filled me with apprehension and the enemies that can scale walls flanked or ambushed me multiple times.

4) "Feel": I dont know any other way to explain this, but this "felt" like what the other Halo games wanted to be. Perhaps its because this was the first game in which you didnt start off in the middle of a war. Perhaps its because you had to track down individuals. Perhaps its because you had something at stake. I dont know, but in this game you werent just trying to mow down the enemy and save humanity in an abstract way. You were trying to save individuals and you were on a mission to stop a threat. This was the type of mission that you could see Master Chief, and others, going off on.

5) "Other games" mechanics: Shifty and others have pointed this out, i just thought id throw my support behind it. Halo had many CoD influences and i thought it generally did a great job with incorporating their mechanics. The quicktime events were much smoother than in CoD(at least the CoD's ive played). Also a couple nods to other games, some like i mentioned above but others i dont want to type out for fear of even minor spoilers.

6) Difficulty: This was a tough game. I liked that. I played on Normal and had as much trouble with that setting as i did with Resident Evil 6 on its hardest setting. I look forward to the challenge of higher difficulties.

I wanted to do the bad first because i wanted to end with the good. This was an very good game. My biggest complaint was the relatively short length of the campaign, meaning i enjoyed it so much i wanted more. This isnt game of the year but it could be the best Halo since the original. The only thing that prevents me from crowning it is the odd choices to try and fix things that werent broken content wise. And even that could be fixed with the additional upcoming content for Spartan Ops.

343 can now rest easy. This would be a great game even if it was made by an established company. For their first go around, this was a triumph. They respected the story that came before it without using it as a crutch. They were very clever in giving the player nods to the past. Whether it was a line or a plot point, they rewarded old hands of the series. And, most importantly, they didnt just make this game an excuse to make more games. There was a definitive ending which also left open possibilities(unlike say, Halo 2, which i considered it to exist soley to make Halo 3). I look forward to playing it again on a harder difficulty, checking out co-op campaign, and keeping up with the updates. Well done 343.

I wanted to add one or two more in the good column but im about to be pulled away(also forgive any misspellings), so if i missed something feel free to point it out.

Re: **Official** Halo 4 thread

Great review Spesh. I can agree with most of that. Especially coming from a non die hard like myself. Which I have been looking for a review like that.

That said, as a die hard fan, I can look over most of the negatives. Except two things. The sound of the Warthog is TOO loud. And the weapons in campaign that are dropped by enemies DO disappear. It has to be a glitch. Because that was never a problem in past Halo games. The only time they would vanish is if you hit a check point. And only the dropped weapons.

I still haven't beat the game. Due partly to work and partly to playing it through on Heroic first time through. Which by the way Spesh, does make the campaign more enjoyable.